Saturday, November 22, 2008

How to Market Your Podcast

By Theo McLanahan

Podcasting is an exciting way to grow your website and connect with your customers. Like a website, a podcast needs to be marketed. Simply creating one and putting it on the internet won't attract much traffic.

There are many different ways to market your business podcast. If you're looking at growing your list at the same time, you might opt to keep your podcast private. This is easy to do- set up a mailing list within your autoresponder for your podcast subscribers. Include the link to sign up on your website.

Should you already have a mailing list, simply send those members an email letting them know you are offering an exclusive podcast- encourage them to sign up. You can also ask your affiliates to spread awareness about your podcast, and offer them the opportunity to buy advertising.

When you are ready to release a new podcast, send an email to the people on your list with the downloadable link. Of course, you can also use this list to market other products and services you offer.

Depending on your goal (if it is to gain website traffic and find customers), you can make your podcast available to the public. There are many directories in which you can submit your podcast. People will seek out podcasts they may be interested in, and could easily find yours, even if they didn't realize that your website existed.

You will need an RSS feed added to your podcast if you are to submit it to a directory. This works similarly to a blog directory. This is a very simple procedure; there are many different feeds to choose from- try doing a Google search to find one.

iTunes is probably the most well-known podcast directory, and you can easily add your podcast to the iTunes store. The term "iTunes store" may be misleading. You don't have to charge for your podcast. This link: http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/podcast/ will take you to Apple's Support page. There will be a form you have to fill out before your podcast can be added; this page will also answer any questions you have about adding your podcast to iTunes.

There are many other directories that you should also submit your podcast. The more places you have it listed, the more likely you are to have visitors find it. Two other large directories are Podcast.net and Podcast.com. By simply doing a Google search, you can come up with many more.

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